Linguistic Analysis： Learner Challenges of Subject—Verb Agreement

胡音

【Abstract】This paper has discussed one of the common grammatical difficulties for Chinese students to understand， that is， the SVA （subject-verb agreement）. Different principles regarding number of nouns and forms of verbs in Chinese and English languages have contributed to some mistakes that English language learners frequently make. The author has listed abundant examples from student work to illustrate the issue of negative transfer of Chinese to English and has explored possible solutions to make grammar-teaching practices more effective.

【Key Words】ESL； SVA； subject-verb agreement； negative transfer； inflectional verb endings

1 Introduction

In my English class， I discovered that my college students frequently made mistakes about subject-verb agreement （hereafter SVA）， despite the fact that this grammar point was taught in the 7th Grade in middle school. Students tended to omitted the –s or –es， which should be attached to verbs after singular nouns or third person singular pronouns in simple present tense. They also frequently dropped the /s/， /z/ and /?z/ sounds made by –s or –es in their speaking. Also， by reflecting on my own English using and interviewing my TESOL peers from China， I found out that although we follow SVA in academic writing， we unconsciously leave out the final endings –s and –es in our speech.

Why is it so hard for English Language Learners （ELLs） with the L1 of Mandarin Chinese to master SVA？ I will answer this question in this paper from a cross-linguistic perspective. I will first contrast Chinese and English languages and find out the grammatical and morphological differences between them. Then， I will anticipate potential difficulties students will meet when learning SVA and list some mistakes made by my former students. At last， I will put forward some teaching strategies to teach SVA more effectively.

2 Linguistic Challenges

Belonging to different language families， English and Chinese are greatly disparate in many linguistic aspects， including grammar and morphology. According to Schmitt and Marsden （2006）， modern English is an inflectional language in which inflectional endings are attached to nouns or verbs to play certain grammatical functions. However， according to Packard （2000， as cited in Wang et al.， 2008）， in Chinese， “there are no inflectional words” （p. 294） and Chinese words possess the characteristic of stability.

2.1 The Number of Nouns

To discuss SVA， which requires that “a verb must agree in number （i.e.， singular or plural） with its subject” （American Psychological Association， 2010， p. 78）， it is essential for us to first exam the different ways to indicate the number of nouns in Chinese and English. Here is an example：

①Xiongmao chi zhuzi.

Panda eat bamboo.

“Pandas eat bamboo.” or “The panda eats bamboo.”

From this example， we can see that the Chinese noun xiongmao can convey either the plural meaning or the singular meaning without a change of word form. While the corresponding English word panda becomes pandas by adding the inflection –s to indicate its plural status. This example also shows the ambiguity of Chinese language. Although non-inflectional and ambiguous， Chinese language has its own way to clearly express the number of nouns. Here is the example：

②Yi zhi xiongmao chi zhuzi.

One panda eat bamboo.

“A panda eats bamboo.”

According to Chen （2012）， English is a “singular-plural language” while Chinese is a “numeral-classifier language” （p. 126）. Unlike in English language that we usually append suffix –s or –es to the end of a noun to make it plural， in Chinese we add a numeral and a classifier ahead of a noun to show its number. In the Chinese sentence in example ②， yi zhi is used to give the noun xiongmao a singular meaning. The numeral yi means one in English and the classifier zhi is used to indicate the noun is the name of an animal.

2.2 Forms of Verbs

As for verbs， in English， the suffix–s or –es is attached to the bare infinitive form of regular verbs to make them match the singular subjects in the simple present tense （Curzan & Adams， 2009）. However， in Chinese， according to Swan and Smith （2001）， “what English achieves by changing verb forms， Chinese expresses by means of adverbials， word order and context” （p. 315） and the verb form will not be changed. Here are some examples：

③ Li zhu zai Luoshanji.

Li live in Los Angeles.

“Li lives in Los Angeles.”

④ Ta zhu zai Luoshanji.

She/he live in Los Angeles.

“She/he lives in Los Angeles.”

⑤ Li he Zhang zhu zai Luoshanji.

Li and Zhang live in Los Angeles.

“Li and Zhang live in Los Angeles.”

⑥ Tamen zhu zai Luoshanji.

They live in Los Angeles.

“They live in Los Angeles.”

In the Chinese sentences in example③ and example④， the subjects are respectively a singular noun and a third person singular pronoun. While in example⑤ and example⑥， the subjects are respectively a plural noun and a plural pronoun. Comparing the four Chinese example sentences， we can see that the verb zhu remain in the same form regardless of the number of the subject. However， contrasting the English sentences in example③and④with them in example⑤and⑥， we can see that the verb live is attached with the suffix–s to go with the singular subjects.

In English， the irregular verbs also change forms to reach concord with the subjects， such as the copula be. However， the equivalent copula for be in Chinese is shi， which remains the same regardless the number or person of the subject. This is shown by the examples below：

⑦Wo shi laoshi.

I be a teacher.

“I am a teacher.”

⑧ Ta shi laoshi.

She/he be a teacher.

“She/ he is a teacher.”

⑨Tamen shi laoshi.

They be teacher.

“They are teachers.”

3 Common Learner Errors

The nine examples I listed above have shown several differences between Chinese and English in relation to SVA. First， there is no SVA in Chinese language in that the verb forms remain the same despite the number of the subjects， while English strictly follows SVA rules. Second， in Chinese， the plural meaning of a subject is expressed by the context， while in English， it is usually indicated by inflectional endings.

Cross-linguistic studies have shown that there exists the phenomenon of L1 transfer in foreign language learning. In ESL/EFL learning， the L1 transfer can be positive when an ELLs L1 shares structural similarities with English and it can be negative “when learners encounter structures in the second language that differ from or are unfamiliar to them in the first language” （Genesee et al.， 2007， p. 155）. The lack of SVA and inflections in Chinese has posed great difficulties on ELLs.

3.1 False Judgement on the Number of Subject

First， Chinese ELLs tend to have difficulties identifying the number of a subject. One the one hand， since most plural nouns are ended with inflections –s or –es， beginner students may have the misunderstanding that all nouns ended with –（e）s are plural. Thus， they are prone to produce the sentence the news are interesting， which is a violation of SVA. On the other hand， students tend to use singular verbs when the plural nouns “appear to be singular” （American Psychological Association， 2010， p.79）. Those nouns include data， corpora and phenomena， etc.

Second， as example ②shows that Chinese language use numerals and classifiers to indicate the number of a noun， ELLs tend to make false judgment on the number of the subject which contains numbers. For example， I remembered many students in my class chose to put are on the line in the sentence five hundred dollars___（is/are） a lot of money， and explained that five hundred dollars is obviously more than one dollar， therefore a plural verb is needed. Students also made similar mistakes such as two and three are five.

What is more， as American Psychological Association （2012） suggests， intervening phrases such as together with， plus， and as well as， can cause great confusion to ELLs. Sentences such as my mother， as well as my father， love me very much are very common in students writing assignments.

3.2 Omission of Inflectional Verb Endings

Since Chinese verbs always keep the same spelling and do not change along with the number of the subject， even though students fully understand that they should change verb forms to achieve SVA in English， they easily omit the inflectional verb endings –s or –es. As I mentioned previously， beginner ELLs make such mistakes in both their writing and speaking， and advanced learners often make those mistakes in speaking other than academic writing.

3.3 Pronunciation of Inflectional Verb Endings

The final –s and –es are pronounced differently when added to different verbs. As Azar and Hagen （2009） listed， “final –s is pronounced /s/ after voiceless sounds…final –s is pronounced /z/ after voiced sounds…final –s and –es are pronounced /?z/ after ‘sh， ‘ch， ‘s， ‘x， ‘z， and ‘ge/ ‘dge sounds” （p.85）. However， since Chinese and English vary greatly in phonology， it is hard for students to command this pronunciation pattern. For example， some students pronounce the word goes as /g?us/ instead of /g?uz/. Also， the sound /?z/ is usually mispronounced as /iz/ by Chinese ELLs for the reason that in Chinese， every sound is articulated loudly and clearly.

4 Analysis and Possible Solutions

The negative transfer of Chinese to English not only poses challenges on ELLs learning， but also urges teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and figure out more effective ways of grammar teaching. Aiming at reducing the frequency of common errors listed above， I will deeply analyse those violations and put forward several possible teaching strategies below.

First， students have difficulties distinguishing some singular and plural nouns （i.e.， news， corpora） because they have a stereotype of what plural nouns should look like. This stereotype comes from the broad generalization of the basic rule to form a plural noun by adding –s or –es， while forgetting about the exceptional situations. Thus， before teaching SVA， a review lesson on the number of nouns is necessary.

To intensify students memory of the irregularities in SVA， the teacher can adopt the input enhancement strategy， which， according to Nunan （2003）， “is a technique for getting students to notice the grammar item that the teacher wants to introduce” （p.161）. The teacher can give students a passage that contains many irregularities of singular or plural subjects and ask them to judge the number of the subjects by looking at the verb forms. Students should highlight the singular subjects in one color and highlight the plural subjects in another color. In this activity， students are exposed to abundant examples and are fully aware of the irregularities of subjects. This activity can also be applied to raise students awareness of the inflectional verb endings and consequently reduce the frequency of omitting them in writing.

As for beginner students omission of final –s or –es of the singular verbs in writing and speaking， the crux of this matter is that they have the declarative knowledge of SVA but lack the procedural knowledge of it. According to Nunan （2003）， “declarative knowledge is knowing language rules. Procedural knowledge is being able to use the knowledge for communication” （p.160）. To improve students procedural knowledge of SVA， the teacher should teach this grammar item in a meaning communicative context. For example， the teacher can ask every student to write a paragraph to describe an animal， including its appearance， living habits and so on. Students should begin their sentences with the third person singular pronoun it. Then， the teacher will ask students to work in pairs to restate their paragraphs orally sentence by sentence. The partner should try to guess the animal with the least clues. After that， students will switch partners and do this repeatedly. Through this activity， students can practice the inflectional verb endings in actual use， instead of just memorizing the rules.

The phenomenon that advanced ELLs drop inflectional endings of singular verbs in speaking while keep then in writing can be explained by their unbalanced development of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency （CALP） and Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills （BICS）. Cummins （2005） distinguishes between academic language proficiency and conversational fluency that the former is the ability of using English in an accurate way in academic writing while the latter means the ability to carry on real-life conversations. In an EFL setting as China， students mother tongue is the dominant language both in their daily life and school education， while English is only learned and used in English classes. The English learned in class often aims at academic development and lacks of real-life materials. Without an English-speaking environment， students conversational English proficiency developed slowly and is lower than their academic English proficiency. For advanced learners， teachers can adopt the “spot-the-mistake exercise” （Nunan， 2003， p.168）. For example， the teacher can ask students to describe a person or an animal beginning with singular nouns or third person singular pronouns orally. When students are speaking， their utterances will be recorded. Students will transcript their own sound clips later and mark the errors concerning SVA.

To eliminate mispronunciation of inflectional verb endings， teachers should abandon the traditional silent grammar teaching practices while teach in an audio manner. Teachers can play audio clips about the pronunciation pattern of final –s and –es in class for a period of time. In the long run， students can naturally produce correct pronunciations because the pattern is deeply embedded in their mind in an unconscious way through listening.

5 Conclusion

For Chinese ELLs， the simple present tense is not that simple because of the lack of SVA and inflections in their L1. My experiences as an English learner as well as my professional training of an English teacher help me to locate the difficulties my students will encounter in their learning path and allow me to solve the problems efficiently.

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